India to have 1st human in space, deep sea by 2025: Union Minister

New Delhi, July 4: India is set to witness the first human in space and deep sea by 2025, said Jitendra Singh, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Science and Technology, on Thursday at an event held in the national capital.

“Four astronauts -- three Group Captains and one Wing Commander -- have been selected for India’s human space mission Gaganyaan,” the minister said.

The Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) Gaganyaan mission aims to send a manned three-day mission to space, which will orbit 400 km above Earth and will return.

The four group captains from the Indian Air Force -- Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair, Ajit Krishnan, and Angad Pratap, and wing commander Shubanshu Shukla -- have been selected for the mission slated for 2025.

The minister also shared that “India’s Deep-Sea mission will send three Indians to the deep sea in 2025.”

Known as 'Samudrayaan’, the initiative of the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) will be a crewed expedition to a depth of 6,000 m in the central Indian Ocean onboard Matsya6000 -- a manned submersible vehicle developed indigenously.

The Science and Technology Minister also recalled the recent progress in the space sector and shared the path of India’s vision.

He noted that beyond launching rockets and satellites, the space sector will also propel growth and positively impact agriculture, infrastructure, communication, healthcare, etc.

“In 2022 we had just one space Startup and in 2024 after opening the space sector for private participation we have nearly 200 startups and many among them have global capacity. He also shared that in just a few months 1,000 crore of private sector investment has come into the space sector,” he said.